Problem: Write an equation to represent the following statement. $33$ is $15$ less than $k$. Solve for $k$. $k=$
The word ${\text{is}}$ means ${\text{equals}}$. So, we can write ${33 }{\text{ is}}$ as ${33}=$. Next, let's translate ${15}$ less than $ k$ : $\text{Less than }}$ means ${15}$ is being $\text{subtracted}}$ from $ k$. So, we can write ${15}$ less than $ k$ as $ k D-{15}$. Now let's write the whole equation together. ${33}= k D-{15}$ We can also write this as $ k - {15} = {33}$. Now we can solve for ${k}$. Add ${15}$ to both sides of the equation to get ${k}$ by itself: $\begin{aligned} {33} +{15} &= {k}-{15}+{15} \\ \\ {48} &={k} \end{aligned}$ The following equation matches this situation: $33=k-15$ $k=48$